US Electric Grid

Map Sources

These are the public datasets and basemaps currently used in the US Electric Grid interactive map. The public map focuses on power plants and filtered substation records so it does not overstate the accuracy of transmission-line routes or service-territory boundaries.

Datasets Used In The Map

Each map layer is intentionally limited to sources that can be explained and checked by users. Source links are included so the data trail remains visible.

Source	Source Link	What It Provides	How It Is Used In The Map
EIA / ArcGIS Power Plants	Power Plants in the US FeatureServer	Power plant point locations and attributes such as plant name, utility, fuel/source, technology, MW, state, and county.	Rendered as colored point markers. Marker color changes by energy source, such as solar, wind, gas, nuclear, and hydro.
HIFLD Electric Substations	Electric Substations FeatureServer	Substation-related point records, including actual substations plus source records such as taps, risers, dead ends, and unclear records.	Filtered so the public Substations layer shows only records where `TYPE = SUBSTATION`. Tap, riser, dead-end, and unclear records are hidden from this layer.
OpenStreetMap	OpenStreetMap copyright and contributors	Standard street and topographic basemap tiles.	Used as the default background map.
Esri World Imagery	World Imagery MapServer	Satellite imagery basemap tiles.	Used for the Satellite basemap option to support visual quality checks around power plants, substations, and nearby infrastructure.

Removed / Archived Layers

Transmission lines and retail service territories were reviewed and removed from the public map because the available public layers were not accurate enough for this page’s purpose.

Archived Layer	Why It Was Removed From The Public Map
Transmission lines	The HIFLD line layer is a high-level public infrastructure layer with many inferred or source-composited routes. Filtering to in-service, non-inferred, higher-voltage records would remove most records and still would not make the geometry authoritative enough for visual quality checks.
Retail service territories	The polygons are source-composited and visibly overlap. They are not legal exclusive service-area boundaries, so showing them as a public map layer would be misleading.

Implementation Notes

The public map currently displays power plants and filtered substations only.
Substations are filtered to avoid showing TAP, RISER, DEAD END, and NOT AVAILABLE records as actual substations.
-999999 values in source fields is treated as missing or unavailable data, not real numeric values.
The map is intended for exploration and quality review, not legal boundary confirmation, engineering design, or operational dispatch.

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